Springfield Hears About Rutland's Approach To Crime

Rutland Police Chief James Baker spoke in Springfield about Rutland's approach to cleaning up crime.

Susan Keese
/ VPR

In Springfield Monday night, more than 200 people turned out to consider ways to deal with the problem of drugs and criminal behavior in town.

Rutland Police Chief James Baker was asked to come to Springfield to talk about Rutland’s approach to similar problems over the past few years. Baker is also the former director of the Vermont State Police. He said it takes more than police action to deal with drugs and crime. It takes creating an environment that isn’t conducive to illegal activity.

"There is more control over criminal activity and misbehavior when a community sets norms and holds people to those norms," Baker said. "It could be as simple as zoning and building enforcement, holding people accountable for what the expectation of the community is."

Baker recommended data-gathering technology to pinpoint trouble spots and focus police efforts more effectively. But he called relying on law enforcement alone "a set-up for failure."

"Because so many of the issues that are involved with the underlying crime issue," he said, "are either mental health-driven or substance abuse-driven, family dysfunction, have nothing to do with the police department." Baker said it takes a concentrated, collaborative effort to change a community for the better.

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The town of Springfield has been considering an anti-loitering ordinance to help keep drugs and criminal activity off the streets. Those efforts have led to a broader discussion of the town’s problems.

Sitting in the Jenny Wren Café on Springfield’s main downtown street, Kimberly Bombria says she’s seen a lot of gang activity and drug sales. She traces much of the problem to tenants of the building that also houses the cafe.

“It’s hard for me to acknowledge progress I’ve made sometimes,” Meghan said, “but when I look back and think of who I was and where I was at and what my life was like on a day-to-day basis 301 days ago, it’s like a 180.”

It was early May, and Meghan was sitting in a food court in a mall in Burlington. Stale pop music played through the overhead speakers, and groups of teenagers occasionally wandered by. A routine mid-week scene, but Meghan was celebrating; 300 days earlier, she woke up and, for the first time in a long time, didn’t go straight for the heroin.